How much happy is Eastern Europe?

According to the study conducted by Djankov, Nikolova and Zilinsky (2016) the degree of satisfaction of Eastern Europe citizens is comparatively lower compared to that of Western European citizens.

Although Eastern European economies have improved since 1990s this hasn’t led to an increase in the level of happiness or satisfaction. Ukraine and Russia, for example have a lower degree of satisfaction than Bangladesh and Senegal. (DJANKOV et al., 2016)

This can partly be explained because of higher levels of corruption (bribery) and bad government performance in comparison to Western European countries, which can be seen in Ukraine, with a low degree of satisfaction and, which is, in turn, considered at the same time, one of the most corrupt countries of the world. (DJANKOV et al., 2016)

Also, higher levels of unhappiness were seen in mainly Eastern-Orthodox- populated areas. Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which gives a lot of importance to fasting, reflection and prayer, may make the citizens of a country more prone to be affected by economic and political changes and so has increased the levels of unhappiness in some countries. (DJANKOV et al., 2016)

This low degree of satisfaction goes along with a lower life expectancy in comparison to Western European countries, a fact that can be attributed to lower social coverage, poor diets and adverse climatic (extremely cold).

References:

DJANKOV, NIKOLOVA, ZILINSKY (2016) The happiness gap in Eastern Europe Working, Symposium Ukraine: Escape from Post-Soviet Legacy? Paper No. 184, European Bank Available at: http://www.ebrd.com/documents/oce/the-happiness-gap-in-eastern-europe.pdf. [Last accessed: 27/10/2016]